At first, I was intrigued by the headline: China Launches “Close Contact Detector” App. A promise, perhaps, to keep those who get too close from breaking some imaginary, yet very discernible personal space boundary during day-to-day interactions. If you’ve ever felt the hot breath of a stranger reach the back of your neck while innocently standing in line at Target, you'll understand why an app like this would be appealing.
Alas, this is not what the app is for.
Instead, researchers from China are enabling its citizens to track their movements in relation to others infected, or suspected of being infected, with the coronavirus.
Using the wealth of data China already collects about its citizens who are tracked via a national identification number and other methods, the app draws from data about a user’s movements, for instance from records about public transportation usage, to determine if a user has either traveled with, worked alongside, or even lived with someone demonstrating symptoms of the coronavirus.
To access this information, users are required to register their phones and input their names and national IDs to reveal their historical movements and measure those movements against the movements of those infected with the virus.
While the app will likely have significant implications for reducing coronavirus exposure, I’ll be waiting patiently right here for someone to develop the app that triggers an alarm whenever someone gets too close.
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